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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2000, p. 3553-3558, Vol. 182, No. 12
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
A Common Step for Changing Cell Shape in Fruiting
Body and Starvation-Independent Sporulation of Myxococcus
xanthus
E.
Licking,
L.
Gorski,
and
D.
Kaiser*
Departments of Biochemistry and Developmental
Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford,
California 94305
Received 27 January 2000/Accepted 27 March 2000
Myxococcus xanthus can sporulate in either of two ways:
at the end of the program of fruiting body development or after
exposure of growing cells to certain reagents such as concentrated
glycerol. Fruiting body sporulation requires starvation, while glycerol sporulation requires rapid growth, and since the two types of spores
are structurally somewhat different, it has generally been assumed that
the two processes are different. However, a Tn5 Lac insertion mutation,
7536, has been isolated which simultaneously blocks the development of fruiting body spores as well as
glycerol-induced spores. Both sporulation pathways are blocked in the
mutant within the process that converts a rod-shaped cell into a
spherical spore. The
7536 locus is expressed at the time of cell
shape change appropriate to each process, early after glycerol
induction and late after starvation induction. On the C-signal response
pathway, it is possible to identify positions for the normal function
of the
7536 locus and for the inducing stimulus from glycerol that are unique and consistent with the observations. Although the two
sporulation pathways differ in certain respects, it is shown that they
share at least one step for changing a rod-shaped cell into a spherical spore.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Beckman Center,
B300, Stanford University School of Medicine, 279 Campus Dr., Stanford, CA 94035-5329. Phone: (650) 723-6165. Fax: (650) 725-7739. E-mail: Luttman{at}cmgm.stanford.edu.

Present address: Science Desk, Business Week Magazine, New York, NY
10020.

Present address: Western Regional Research Center, USDA/ARS,
Albany, CA
94710.
Journal of Bacteriology, June 2000, p. 3553-3558, Vol. 182, No. 12
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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